Bangkok!

 8/5  from Katherine in Bangkok

   After a few bad airplane meals and some unmemorable movies and some uncomfortable sleeping, we arrived at the Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok's Sukumvit area.  Great hotel with an old-fashioned atmosphere and alluring out-of-another-era decor.  It has a swimming pool with fountains, a restaurant serving oatmeal and congee and fresh juices you can't begin to choose from and free wifi!  The restaurant is tightly run by an older woman named Anong who has been there forever.  A sign outside the Atlanta Hotel warns "Sex tourists are not welcome here" (Bangkok has a reputation) and in the the hall more such warnings plus "Zero tolerance for troublemakers" and "Zero tolerance for illegal substances and activitiies" followed by the tongue-in-cheek "Complaints Not Permitted - not at the prices we charge!"  In our case $34. /night for two for a very comfortable "suite" with two large rooms.

 The lobby of the charming Atlanta Hotel






 





  On to our first taste of China - the Chinese Embassy! - to apply for our visas, our really, really over-priced visas.  On the board, in the huge waiting room are lists for visa fees for all foreign visitors, fees for Thai visitors and the very special fees for us Americans, which  are 3X the highest fees listed for everyone else.  These "special" prices are new as of about a year ago, obvious by their listing on paper which has been pasted over the old prices
on the sign in the visa waiting room.  A very charming and fey young Thai guy helps us through the process.  What to say for our employment?  Self-employed? Work in the media (not a good idea in China)? Retired? Teachers?  We are marginally any of these.  Detailed account of where we wil stay in China?  Not a clue as far as we're concerned, but a fabulously smartly attired Thai transvestite overhears our quandry and volunteers via her iPhone the information we need for a hotel in Guanxi.  I'm not even sure where that is in China but it works for us and later after a lot of tuk-tuk and taxi haggling and buses and delicious street food, we make it back later in the afternoon to pick up our official and expensive visa for China!  Now to plan our exit from Bangkok...